Windows 95 Client Reboots Upon Starting

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5 and 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5 and 3.51
• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

If you have a shared network installation of Windows 95 that uses either a Windows NT Server or Windows NT Workstation as a file server, and you change either the file server's name or network share name and also make the appropriate changes in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, Windows 95 no longer boots up correctly. As Windows 95 is loading, the computer reboots.

CAUSE

A shared network installation of Windows 95 is initiated by first running NetSetup from the Windows 95 CD, installing a common shared directory on a file server, connecting to the server from the client, and running setup. This installs about 3 megabytes (MB) of Windows 95 files on ether the server or local hard disk, which contain mostly computer and user specific settings.

In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, a network connection is made to \\server_name\share_name, and when "WIN" is run in real-mode, the bulk of the Windows 95 files are loaded by the client from the file server.

Within one of the registry files, SYSTEM.DAT, there are many references to the file server's name as it was during setup of Windows 95.

WORKAROUND

If a network administrator wants to move the shared Windows 95 files, it is possible to do so by changing all of the name references in the registry:

1. Save the registry of each client as a text file with REGEDIT.EXE.

2. Using a text editor, search for the old server or share name and replace it with the new name.

   In this text file, the names are preceded by an extra set of back slashes. The name appear as: \\\\server_name\\share_name.

3. Reload the modified text file with REGEDIT.EXE.